The present invention relates to cash management apparatuses and systems, and particularly to apparatuses and systems for real-time cash dispensing, tracking, and auditing cash in one or more locations from a central location, remote location, or locally.
In most store and financial institution locations handling currency and/or coin (“cash”), a trusted manager dispenses cash to cashiers from a central safe at the start of and during a shift. In addition, a manager counts cash received from each cashier at the end of a shift. The manager reconciles the difference in cash between the start and end of a shift with the sales reported by the cashier's software-based point of sale system (“POS”). This process of controlling cash is summarized by the following steps: (1) manager opens safe; (2) manager counts cash to dispense to a cashier; (3) manager records cash amount dispensed to cashier and placed in cashier's POS; (4) cashier verifies cash amount by counting distributed cash; (5) steps 1-4 are repeated if cashier requires additional cash disbursements throughout shift; (6) at the end of shift, cashier counts cash from POS and remits to manager; (7) manager counts end-of-shift cash and enters closing cash balance into cashier's POS; (8) sales report is run on cashier's POS to verify end of shift cash count is correct for total amount of cash disbursed to cashier plus cashier's sales; and (9) manager places cash in safe and closes safe.
In addition, a local manager is required to oversee deposits into the safe from a bank, as well as withdrawals from the safe to a bank. A manager must be present to open the safe during such transactions, or an armored car service must be granted access to the safe.
Disadvantages of the manual cash management process described above include duplicate cash counting by the manager and the cashier, the need to have a manager in each location where cash is handled, manual (versus mechanical) cash counting and dispensing, and a lack of real-time information about a cashier's sales throughout a shift.
Cash management systems have been developed to reduce the number of steps for handling cash. Common systems automate cash counting and depositing cash into a safe or a removable canister within a safe. Other systems combine automated cash verification and depositing into a safe with an end-of-shift report that reconciles the deposited cash with a cashier's sales, while other systems focus on collecting cash, collecting cash and providing change, i.e., disbursing an equivalent cash amount in different denominations, or collecting and/or disbursing cash.
Exemplary systems for counting cash and depositing cash into a safe are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,538,122 (Siemens) and 6,659,340 (Siemens). Each of these systems provides automated cash counting and correlates a cash deposit to a particular cashier. Counted cash is automatically deposited into a safe through an opening in the safe covered by the cash counting device. Deposit reports are generated, and can be transmitted from a safe to an electronic network where the deposit information may be viewed remotely and used to verify that cash from a particular safe is deposited into a bank.
An exemplary system for automatically verifying cash deposited into a safe with an end-of-shift report reconciling the deposited cash with a cashier's sales is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,530 (Brooks, Jr. et al.). In this system, each cashier station has a small deposit safe located within easy reach so a cashier does not need to leave a cash register unattended, or a single safe is located close to several cashiers. A cashier deposits cash into a safe, either during a shift or at the end of a shift, and the cash is correlated to the particular cashier as well as automatically counted by a device located within the safe. The electronics in the safe communicate with a central computer which also communicates with each cashier's POS, and are used to generate end-of-shift reports that reconcile the deposited cash with the cashier's sales.
One system for collecting cash, making change, and disbursing cash is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,371 (Meeker). There is disclosed a device with a bill receiver for validating bills of various denominations and for signaling the denomination of each bill. When making change, a cash dispenser dispenses cartridges containing units of cash one at a time in response to the bill denomination signal. An electronic cash control system is mounted within the safe and includes software for recording each deposit into the bill receiver, recording each withdrawal from the cash dispenser, and providing detailed reports of all such transactions. The cash control system can also be programmed to dispense a certain amount of cash under specified conditions without the deposit of cash.
Another configuration for collecting cash, making change, and disbursing cash utilizes a mechanism called a recycler. For example, Hitachi-Omron manufactures a number of safes for commercial use, including a recycler US-ABIO. Also, Glory LLC manufactures a commercially available recycler. De La Rue manufactures a number of safes for commercial use, including a recycler TCR Twin Safe.
A recycler is able to both dispense notes and count notes in the same mechanism. Notes deposited in the recycler are later available for dispensing, without reloading or moving cassettes in the machine. An example of such a recycler is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,576 (Jones et al.) where deposited bills and coins are counted and separated according to denomination. The deposited bills and coins are available for disbursement to users either as change or as a withdrawal. Another such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,320 (Matsuura et al.). Both of these systems account for cash loaded into the system, deposited into the system and withdrawn from the system, but are not configured to account for sales transactions. Safes incorporating recyclers are manufactured by Hitachi-Omron, which uses a recycler US-ABIO, and De La Rue, which uses a recycler TCR Twin Safe.
One disadvantage with current automated cash management systems is that they use safes which have several disadvantages in terms of security. A safe is typically rated based on its ability to withstand fire and theft. The ability to withstand either of these factors is determined by the wall thickness of the safe and the remaining openings in the safe when the main door is closed. Present cash management systems have openings in the safe wall to accommodate the intake and output of cash. None of the safes have a high security rating, typically designated by a Uniform Laboratories (“UL”) standard of tool-resistant to 15 minutes of theft attack (“TL-15”). Present cash management systems therefore require a manager to transfer cash between a high security safe and the cash management system, or to have a courier, such as an armored car, pick up and deliver cash on a daily basis, both of which decrease cash security and incur additional costs.
Nearly all third-party underwriters refuse to insure large amounts of cash stored in non TL-15 or better safes during non business hours. As a result, stores utilizing cash management systems with lower grade safes must either self-insure or have a manager move cash out of a high security safe and into the cash management system at the start of a business day and back into the high security safe at the end of the business day. Some current cash management systems utilize safes with a UL-291 rating which is similar to a TL-15 rating. However, the price of a UL-291 safe is significantly more than a TL-15 rated safe. In addition, some insurance companies will not provide the same coverage for a UL-291 safe as they will for a TL-15 safe. Using a UL-291 safe therefore imposes unnecessary cost and risk for a business.
Another disadvantage with current automated cash management systems is that they are not capable of autonomous operations without the intervention of an on-site manager. With present systems, an on-site manager must transfer cash between the automated cash management system and the overnight safe at the start and end of the business day. Also, an on-site manager is required to disburse or accept deposits of cash unless an on-site cashier is granted the permission to perform these functions beforehand.
Many present systems are configured to dispense only pre-determined cash amounts and require specialized containers which must be loaded into the system. Some of these systems are the Model SC3221 manufactured by the McGunn Safe Company, NKL Cash Handling's Intellisafe and other systems, Armor Safe Company's safes, including CacheSYSTEM 7000, and Tidel's Sentinel safe. The present systems do not allow a remote manager to determine in real time the amount of cash to dispense to a cashier, nor do they allow a remote manager to control in real time the deposit of cash by a cashier. Real-time remote supervision would allow businesses to reduce the number of managers needed to manage cash, and decrease losses related to cash handling.
The above systems store coin/currency tubes in vertical shafts, with each shaft representing a different denomination. A typical machine may have ten shafts with ten tubes each for a total of one hundred tubes. If a cashier wants quarters, a tube containing a roll of quarters will dispense. In some cases, rolled currency notes are inserted into tubes to allow for rolled currency dispensing. These dispensing systems have several limitations which prevent them from being used for real-time, secure cash disbursements in a retail or similar cash handling environment. The limitations are: (1) time-consuming loading because currency has to be rolled and stored in separate tubes; (2) limited supply of cash for disbursing which must be manually replaced, making the systems unaccommodating for businesses requiring large amounts of cash, such as grocery stores or check cashing businesses; and (3) limited flexibility for disbursing various amounts of cash due to preloaded tubes.
All of the foregoing cash management systems can be purchased with different note capacity options. However, none of the cash management systems are scalable. More specifically, if a user requires additional capacity from a cash management system, the user cannot upgrade that capacity. Instead, the user must purchase a new cash management system. Likewise, if a user has a cash management system that incorporates a bill vending machine, current cash management systems do not permit the user to swap the bill vending hardware for recycler hardware. This limitation is due to the fact that the safe that contains the hardware can only mount one type of hardware. The foregoing limitations in terms of scalability and swapping of hardware impose expenses on the user when upgrading the cash management system.
Another disadvantage with current cash management systems is that they require user access to the inner safe compartments in order to clear a note jam. This allows a user access to the currency and/or coin stored in the device, thereby increasing the risk of theft or loss.